Back @ CES we showcased new display technologies for our BRAVIA televisions (TRILUMINOS and X-Reality), now just over six months later we’re bringing that tech to market, and not just in its original TV format, but in an Android smartphone…

Obviously there’s challenges in taking bleeding-edge display tech and developing it for the world’s slimmest Full HD smartphone. Here’s where I’m supposed to tell you about the process – well, one better – here’s how we did it by a couple of the guys, who well, actually did it.

Who are you, where’ve you been and where are you going?

TO: My name is Takashi Ozaki. I’ve worked as a display and touch panel engineer for eight years – now, current focuses include display image quality, portfolio product support and future planning.

Junichi

JK: I’m Junichi Kosaka, a software engineer. I head up an advanced development team, but also manage technical coordination between Sony Mobile and Sony teams, driving and implementing strategic initiatives.

What does TRILUMINOS Display for mobile and X-Reality for mobile picture engine really mean, in user experience terms?

JK: Forme, it’s uncompromised quality – as an example, lower-res video content (such as the occasional YouTube vid) is reproduced and up-scaled. The engine also affects HD content, for even greater depth, sharpness and quality!

Do any standout challenges spring to mind, in developing / porting TRILUMINOS and X-Reality to mobile?

TO: Replicating the way they work together on mobile, as they do in BRAVIA TVs was tough. It involved a back-and-forth process of hardware modification and software parameter change; lots of meticulous planning and work. But, we believe that’s paid off in the experience created.

JK: I feel it was doing things we’d never done before. In order to introduce super-res technology processing for video, for the first time, we implemented the algorithm on GPU, not CPU. It was a painstaking process of testing / tweaking to optimize image quality. Again, a fairly drawn out process, but a real achievement in terms of the final functionality.

Takashi

One cool thing about TRILUMINOS and X-Reality, that people might not know about?

TO: The combination of the two technologies tunes the display to “natural” for human skins and “vivid” for standout colors. Traditionally, these factors usually force emphasis one way or another, but the algorithm balances both to have equal visual impact. It’s innovation and thinking based on years of BRAVIA expertise, something “ONLY SONY can do”!

JK: Because of the way the human memory prioritizes recognition, it can be a little difficult (at first) to spot the X-Reality for mobile effect. Using settings, and then screen capture, you can easily compare and see the results of “ON and OFF” – give it a go.

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Hi Product Dept,
It’s been awhile, and seeing so many pleasant announcements from Sony lately. Great job!!!
I’m excited about them and I can’t wait to see some of my feedback being materialized again:

– I love your strategy of releasing new flagships in shorter terms that forces other key brand’s annual flagship (Galaxy S4) to rush out internals to match your specifications. Good move!

– Thanks for releasing Xperia ZR, which combines practicality and flagship features. However, what I’d imagine for the future is to release it in scaled down body dimension as the old Xperia Ray size.

– I have an interesting idea, is to build the camera an independent module from the phone’s OS. This solves the response bottleneck that ties to the OS itself, which has poor memory management, considering the amount of memory resident apps installed from Play Store.

– It’s always a marketing move to sell charging dock separately for profits, however the majority customers aren’t rational enough to buy it. So making a point of water proof plus also selling them separately eventually forces customers to flip open the flippers for charging numerous times daily, which quickly reduces the phone to a non water proof phone, and ultimately destroys the experience and marketing efforts. Bundling them together will be a very smart move. You can design the dock to fit in the car as well, which is a very very clever idea. Lastly, design the dock with 2 orientations (stands horizontal or vertical) for all kinds of apps.

– Loudspeaker phone feature has always been an issue with every Xperia phone models, which doesn’t practically works in actual use. You must match the experience at least with the iPhone quality or surpass it.

– Do not retail phone without its key accessories being available at the same time. Currently, I witness essential accessories like phone / tablet covers, dock arriving too late, or wasn’t available throughout the phone’s hot selling time. Offer them as a special pricing package is an effective move. The point is, do not spoil customer’s experience.

– Now that the Xperia design is unified, in order to get volume sales, you need to build a trust in your brand by rolling out new xperia software features into every phone models, but limit these updates to models not older than 3 yrs old. Make clear about which feature will be available in certain model. Explain & demo each new features clearly in your most attractive flagships during major annual events, then roll them out to supported devices within 3 mths, but make all these features available in current year flagships within a week. This is one of the aspects that drove volume sales, because of brand trust.
The point here is product ranges with unified Sony’s design essense & quality, with consistent user experience & UI across all of them, that lasts at least 3 years.

– The reason Vita OS being side-lined is because it’s in a niche mobile game community.
Apple made iOS a generic mobile OS across all range of devices, that’s how they gather the developer’s support momentum.
With your disadvantage as fragmanted platform OS due to independence of PS4 OS, Vita OS, Android OS on phones and tablets, you need to bridge these gabs as close as possible by making porting of apps / games among these devices seamless.
Start by making it simple to port Android apps to the Vita OS and PS4 OS. Release pilot project Vita OS phone, sans the hardcore gaming prowess of PS Vita. Gradually building a Vita OS range of products for game devices, phones, tablets, players, cameras to create Apple like momentum. I understand this is no easy effort. I think this already is a crisis if you do not have a well established platform across your devices. With a strong platform, Apple is able to sustain sales volume eventhough they didn’t put obvious efforts in each generation of their devices, e.g. ipads, iphones etc. Consumer thinks Apple products as stable experiences, without worrying about platform crisis. That’s why the fans’ loyalty. Besides, Android has a controversial privacy & national security issue encircling around it.

hey Sony is anybody still working???? hey a####$$$ if you are still employed it has been eight months since XPeria U got an Update ? what the hell are you guys waiting for the dawn of a new civilisation?

Touch screen problem, when scrolling up suddenly goes down. Camera 8 mp without flash no good pictures during dusk. Speakers not best very low sound. Phone while calling it goes black say like sleep of death. Wifi is not gets connected need to keep the phone next to router will connect in very low strength, when taken about 1 meter it will get disconnected. Need to check on water resistance, as other phones like Z ZL have more complaints on water safty.

After so much of money spend on this no satisfactory sony customers care says the problem will be solved in next Software update, then why sony not rectified before packing the phone and sells this kind of trash to customers. Just fed up.

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Back @ CES we showcased new display technologies for our BRAVIA televisions (TRILUMINOS and X-Reality), now just over six months later we’re bringing that tech to market, and not just in its original TV format, but in an Android smartphone… Obviously there’s challenges in taking bleeding-edge display tech and developing it for the world’s slimmest […]

Back @ CES we showcased new display technologies for our BRAVIA televisions (TRILUMINOS and X-Reality), now just over six months later we’re bringing that tech to market, and not just in its original TV format, but in an Android smartphone… Obviously there’s challenges in taking bleeding-edge display tech and developing it for the world’s slimmest […]